Private leveling zones

[Rageburst]

I\'m taking a page out of Blizzard\'s book. Players can have the option of forming a group in order to enter a private leveling zone where the monsters in the area are tougher, but you get the luxury of not having to deal with crowding, and people kill/loot stealing.

Of course, the monsters can be made 5x harder in this private zone, but this would encourage cooperative play.

The idea is similar to setting up a private server and allowing access only if you know the group\'s password.

[elscouta]

I see good and bad points in this idea:

Good:

I\'m taking a page out of Blizzard\'s book. Players can have the option of forming a group in order to enter a private leveling zone where the monsters in the area are tougher, but you get the luxury of not having to deal with crowding, and people kill/loot stealing.

Of course, the monsters can be made 5x harder in this private zone, but this would encourage cooperative play.

Bad:
- PlaneShift is a multiplayer game. If you want to play only with your team, play in LAN
- That\'s idea is not really realistic.

A good use of this idea is a lost-alone quest. This quest could work like this:
A thief invites you and your team in his house (of course you don\'t know it\'s a thief)
He steals your gold then left you sleepy in a deep forest.
When you wake up, you see that you are in a faraway country, and you must fight to come-back to the city and rape the thief.

Another way to do this is sinking ship: A cursed ship that sink every time you take it and each time you are drop on a beach by the sea.

In both case, as long as you are not near a city, you can\'t meet people, you are like in a parallel world (of course the player should not see this, he must think he has just no luck)

[paxx]

This is an idea that has been mulled around, and not really gone anywhere. And truth to tell it will not until we see how successful it can be.

But in essence it is an argument for community Vs small groups, story Vs. self expanding world, and many other major game play issues. In short in many ways this can change the fundamental feel of the game.

Would people want 2000 different dungeons to explore, or 20 that change depending on your quest?

Like I said, this holds many issues that we will not tackle in the near future, but it is a legitimate want or hope?but there is not much to be said at the moment one way or another.

[Rageburst]

Now that you mention it, I\'d prefer to not have this... but I would like the gameplay system designed in a way that dissuades crowding and loot/kill stealing.

Here are typical suggestions:
Crowding:
For example, the map can be made larger and with more monsters to get rid of crowding.

Kill Stealing:
If person strikes a monster first, and another player comes along to kill steal, then the person won\'t get any experience. That way, a weak player would not have to worry about more powerful players stealing their kills.

HOWEVER, if the monster\'s level is very high, then the player who struck first would get little experience. This prevents the system from being taken advantage of.

Loot Stealing:
The person who legitamitely killed the monster (see above) gets to pick up the dropped item. If no one picks the item after a certain amount of time, then anyone can pick it up.

[elscouta]

Kill Stealing:
If person strikes a monster first, and another player comes along to kill steal, then the person won\'t get any experience. That way, a weak player would not have to worry about more powerful players stealing their kills.

HOWEVER, if the monster\'s level is very high, then the player who struck first would get little experience. This prevents the system from being taken advantage of.

As far as i know, PS is skills-based: when you use a skill, you gain exp in this skill. Killing monsters doesn\'t increase your skills.

Loot Stealing:
The person who legitamitely killed the monster (see above) gets to pick up the dropped item. If no one picks the item after a certain amount of time, then anyone can pick it up.

And what about monsters doesn\'t drop items? This is realistic and avoids loot stealing. Objects can only be found in deep caves with many monsters so the person who fight against many monsters in this cave will find more items. But a person who follows the fighter will find nothing if he stays in the safe area

[druke]

.. i dont like it... sounds exactly like everquest

[Wedge]

These \"private leveling zones\" or instanced dungeons as they are better known have proper applications I believe, but shouldn\'t be used as a whole for the game.  Instancing would be excellent to use for large scale quests as you could add scripted events, more complex puzzles, and a lot more plot to something like that.  Having small points where you can diverge from the MMOness of the game to have a small more dramatic group adventure would be nice I think.

[paxx]

Wedge, you are right on this?and in fact my hope and I think the direction we will go in the future is for a few of these places to exist. The majority would be standard MMORPG dungeons and a few of those same ones would have the ability to be set on an instance or dynamically as the cause arises?.

But we are far from being at any decision point with any of that.

[Rageburst]

Lemme get this straight... I can do something to the monsters w/o killing them, and a certain skill might go up?

I like it. I also like the idea that most monsters don\'t drop items.

[Drilixer]

Originally posted by Rageburst
Lemme get this straight... I can do something to the monsters w/o killing them, and a certain skill might go up?

I like it. I also like the idea that most monsters don\'t drop items.

so uh Rageburt how did you come to this conclusion via a discussion on instanced dungeons?

[paxx]

While I am not sure how Rageburst got that conclusion?it would be correct.

The goal of any instance dungeons or such would be to accomplish something, this could be by avoiding monsters as much as defeating them?or avoiding all except one or two.

In essence some of these dungeons would be mission oriented as opposed to only defeating things.


Again, I restate. This will probably happen in the far future. As there is a lot more work for a lot less people in making dungeons this way. And currently we have to focus on most gain per effort?

Well first we have to get things to work in a good, stable, predictable fashion. Then we might go forth and work on advanced stuff like this.

[Isgrimnur]

As far as i know, PS is skills-based: when you use a skill, you gain exp in this skill. Killing monsters doesn\'t increase your skills.

I think this is where Rageburst got his idea form although I think skill in combat areas such as swordsmanship ect should increase if involved in enough combat where these skills are used.

Anyway back on topic, I agree with paxx on this one, we dont really need many instanced dungeons although a few would be nice to keep some people happy.

[Evanchild]

i think training in a skill should be the only way to raise it. if your skill goes up to a certain level ur not going to excede that on a project and experement to build skill. you will do what you can so you don\'t screw up.

[Grakrim]

Instanced dungeons seem completely counter to the point of MMORPGs to me, although I can certainly see their use in epic quests.  Of course, there should always been some reason in the setting why all these people are popping off into their own dimensions (such as, an entire party is put to sleep by a powerful monster, and must traverse a strange and dangerous dungeon in their dreams).

One idea about instanced environments that I haven\'t heard much about though is their use outside of dungeons.  I believe that instancing would be quite useful for gladitorial arenas in some of the bigger towns; as this would allow many battles to be performed at once.  Another foreseeable use of instancing would be instanced meeting halls.  It would allow for guilds or groups to have private meetings with no chance of a rival overhearing their plans.

I do have one question about instanced dungeons though: if a party enters a private instance and is disbanded, what happens? Do all the member continue to inhabit the same instance, or is each member shoved into their own instance? Or perhaps, the former party is ejected from the dungeon?

[paxx]

If disbanded you remain there untill you leave. All together. If you logg off there is the more interesting question.

What if you as a group logg off just before you complete the task you are there for, and then log right back on???

Does each person get all the loot for the quest :-)?.ummmm NO! but if they accomplish it they get their share.

As far as different locations for instanced stuff. Consider Dungeons a generic term for isolated area of high adventure value.